iPhone app muscling into Kindle’s eBook territory (Updated)

Following the release of the Stanza eBook application for the iPhone, the …

With the advent of the App Store, the iPhone can be pretty much anything you want it to be—at least as long as someone has written an application with the functionality that you're looking for and Apple has actually approved it, anyway. One side effect of having a glut of applications is that the iPhone is beginning to infringe on the territory of other devices. Such is the case with iPhone eBook application Stanza, which, a recent Forbes article suggests, may be more popular for occasional eBook reading than single-purpose devices like the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader.

By August, Amazon had moved approximately 240,000 Kindles, and analysts estimate that 380,000 or so Kindles will be sold by the time 2008 is over. By comparison, Stanza for the iPhone has already been installed around 395,000 times and is supposedly seeing an additional 5,000 installations per day. The Forbes claim that the iPhone is more popular than the Kindle is based on these numbers, although I'd argue that there's a bit of a difference between buying a $360 device and downloading a free application. There's also a big difference in content: Stanza currently offers only public-domain and Creative Commons books, whereas Amazon offers lots of more recent titles.

Although Stanza may give the Kindle a run for its money, the two eBook options serve fairly different needs. The Kindle is directed primarily at people who plan on doing a lot of reading on-the-go or those who want access to lots of recent eBooks. It also boasts better battery life and a screen that's easier on the eyes. So far, Stanza seems to be directed at people who occasionally want a book to read, but don't want to carry around an extra device. Being a fan of the classics also helps. Stanza developers Lexcycle, Amazon, and Sony are all working on improvements to their products, with Amazon and Sony focusing on reader technology and Lexcycle working on getting more current titles. Ultimately, I think the increased competition will make all three platforms better for the owners of iPhones, Kindles, and Readers.

Update: A reader wrote in to inform me that any DRM-free eBooks can be imported to the Stanza iPhone client by using the Stanza Desktop application, which makes the selection a bit more comprehensive. Sadly, most eBooks from big-name authors are published with DRM, but if you happen to have a big collection of pirated Mary Higgins Clark novels, you can read those with Stanza.